Kalamata International Short Documentary Film Festival is born from the well-known Peloponnisos International Documentary Film Festival.
After nine years of success with PelDocFest, it's time to give the short and mini documentaries their own space. An extra four-day event is happening!

The main event takes place in Kalamata, Greece, every January.
Special events, masterclasses, retrospectives, educational screenings, seminars and so on are part of the festival.

Films are presented to the public at monthly screenings when they are judged as "official selections" by a three-member jury and the audience chooses the winners.
Monthly winners are considered to be "semi-finalists" for the annual event, and they can use the festival's laurel.

The two main award winners of the Kalamata International Short Documentary Film Festival annual event are considered to be "officially selected" for the Peloponnisos International Documentary Film Festival in October. (https://filmfreeway.com/PeloponnisosInternationaldocumentaryFestival)

Kalamata International Short Documentary Film Festival retains an online database and all selected films can be accessed by a chosen group of industry professionals, journalists, and broadcasters just for your project promotion.

The festival is based on live audience events, but we also provide online, free-of-charge, screenings for the Greek audience. Access is limited to the geographical area of Greece and only for the first 100 viewers per film. The online voting system's audience votes are also counted in the live screening's audience awards.

Awards & Prizes

MAIN AWARDS
1. Audience award for the best international documentary.
2. Audience award for the best Greek / Cypriot documentary.

SPECIAL AWARDS
(All films that were selected for the annual event are competitors for the special awards.)
1. Best Student International Documentary.
2. Best Student Greek / Cypriot Documentary.
3. Best Director.
4. Best First-time Director.
5. Best Cinematographer.
6. Best Editing.
7. Best Audio design.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Rules & Terms

Please be sure to read all the rules and regulations before submitting your project.

This is a documentary film festival!
Fiction films, Pseudo-documentaries, mockumentaries or any form that does not portray actual events, are disqualified.

All decisions of programmers and jurors are final. All entries will be viewed and given equal consideration.

1. All films must be the original work of the filmmakers and all filmmakers must have the necessary rights.
2. All films must be submitted via FilmFreeway.
3. All films submitted must have been completed on or after January 1, 2019.
4. For student submissions, a Student ID is required as an attachment to your FilmFreeway profile.
5. Category 'Underage and school projects' is for Documentaries made by very young creators, under 18yo, or up to secondary education school, class projects.
If you are older than 18yo and submit to this category we will consider it as abuse.
6. All films must be submitted with an online screener with separate English subtitles in .SRT file and if you also have Greek .SRT subtitles file.
You can send us Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, MyAirBridge or FilmFreeway links to your screener, trailer and SRT subtitle files.
We currently support videos up to 4K resolution in .mov or .mp4 formats.
7. An A4 portrait poster, a trailer, still photos, a biography, and a photo of the director are required. Submissions that do not meet these requirements will be deemed incomplete
8. All FINALISTS must have subtitles in both English and Greek (CC script required). Otherwise, the director's or distributor's contribution for the translation of English subtitles into Greek is €0.18/line.
9. If there are no synced subtitles SRT file in English, Spanish, French or German, the cost is €0.34/line for translating and syncing.
When available, the final Greek SRT file is delivered to the director/producer.
10. All short documentary submissions must be under 30 minutes.
For documentaries over 30 minutes long, please submit them to https://filmfreeway.com/PeloponnisosInternationaldocumentaryFestival
11. No film may be withdrawn from the festival program after its selection.
12. Participants agree that all materials related to their film (including excerpts of the film) may be published for any promotional purpose related to the Kalamata Short Documentary Festival & Peloponnisos Documentary Festival, including the Festival Program, Festival trailer, Festival Website, and any local or national media. Posters and images of the film may be used independently or in combination with images from other films to promote the film and the festival.

13. ALL SELECTED FILMS WILL BE UPLOADED TO OUR WEBSITE AND BE AVAILABLE TO A SELECTED GROUP OF INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS, JOURNALISTS AND BROADCASTERS TO PROMOTE YOUR WORK.
14. ALL SELECTED FILMS WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLINE FREE OF CHARGE TO AUDIENCES OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL AREA OF GREECE FOR A MAXIMUM OF 100 VIEWS
15. ALL SELECTED FILMS WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NON-COMMERCIAL SCREENINGS
16. ALL SUBMISSION FEES ARE NON-REFUNDABLE
20 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Alexia Tsouni

    A really wonderful festival with enthusiastic festival team and very interesting selections! Thank you so much for your kind hospitality and perfect communication. We are so happy to have participated with our film “HANTUSH – a fairytale”!

    January 2023
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  • Murat YÜKSEL

    very nice festival, thank you

    December 2022
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  • Kyriaki hadjikoumi

    Thank you so much for screening our documentary "38 days".

    November 2022
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  • Richard E Haywood

    It was a great way to show my film!

    October 2022
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  • Yevheniia Kolesnykova

    Good festival, thank you for selecting "The creation of a symbolic painting". Hope to see you all on the annual event

    September 2022
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